Confucius' courtyard architecture, philosophy and the good life in China Confucius' courtyard architecture, philosophy and the good life in China

For almost three thousand years, Chinese life – from the city and the imperial palace, to the temple, the market, and the family home – was configured around the courtyard, as were the accomplishments of China’s artistic, philosophical, and institutional elites. Confucius’ Courtyard tells the story of how this most singular and persistent architectural form holds the key to understanding, even today, much of Chinese society and culture. Part architectural history, and part introduction to the cultural and philosophical history of China, the book explores the Chinese view of the world, and reveals the extent to which this is inextricably intertwined with the ancient concept of the courtyard, an architectural element and a way of life which has been almost entirely overlooked in China since 1949, and in the West for centuries. Along the way, it provides an accessible introduction to the Confucian doctrine of zhongyong (‘the Middle Way’), and the Chinese principles of the virtuous good life, and shows how these can only be fully understood through the humble courtyard – a space which is grounded in the earth, yet open to the heavens. Erudite and poetic, Confucius’ Courtyard weaves together architecture, philosophy, and cultural history to explore what lies at the very heart of Chinese civilization. How did the most populous nation on earth manage to live a virtuous as well as pleasurable life without the blessing from awesome God? What was the moral bedrock of this largely secular civilization? The Chinese, with a sustained interest over three millennia, desired an equilibrium: enjoying an earthly life for what it’s worth while maintaining a certain awe below Heaven’s arch; participating actively in society and taking responsibility for one’s family while snatching a moment away to indulge in life’s pleasures, or retreating to one’s inner world; and staying put in the house while letting the mind and soul roam freely beyond it. They managed, somewhat nonchalantly, to do so in and about the confines of their courtyard. Pitching in the middle was not only a way of living, but also a state of mind, as preached by Confucius. The Chinese gentry, along with the populace at large, held dear this doctrine, as an art of avoiding extremes and respecting the enduring in life. Since saints and innate moral defects in humans are rare, the middle way, in the Chinese mind, is virtuous, for it represents not a compromize, but a propriety that is humanly achievable, hence reason. Armed with this guiding principle, well established as early as 500 BCE in Confucius time, the Chinese in the next two and half millennia did not bother to change radically their view of the world. Such peculiar, and extraordinary, longevity was housed by the equally static quadrangle enclosure – the courtyard. From the house to their cosmic city, and anything in-between such as an imperial palace or a temple, market, workshop, theatre, and brothel, were all configured within the same walled compound. The Chinese saw no need to develop a bespoke building type to correspond to a special use, which the English took to an unparalleled level of specificity in the nineteenth century when work and living were separated, and assorted institutions emerged. This book, beginning with the celestial origin of the courtyard, embarks on a search for the meanings and shapes of Chinese life that, too, have been kept in check in the courtyard, secular but not materialistic. The middle way, as a philosophy, an artistic and political doctrine, and indeed a way of living, is staged in and about the courtyard in a time span from approximately 1000 BCE through to the middle of the twentieth century. Chinese life in this book, and especially the family and cultural life of the gentry, thematic and selective, unfolds in the courtyard following a chronology. The book is a history of the architecture of the Chinese courtyard as much as the life staged by it in all its facets. Cover 1 Halftitle page 2 About author 3 Title page 4 Copyright page 5 Dedication 6 Contents 8 Illustrations 11 Acknowledgements 23 Prologue 26 I 26 II 32 III 35 IV 38 V 42 Part One Heaven A Panacea from the Courtyard 48 1 What Makes the Chinese House 50 The conceptual parti 52 Confucius’ courtyard 57 From object to void 68 2 Heaven and What Is Below 74 The Chinese tian 74 The King’s City 84 The built world and the literary world 90 Part Two Heaven and Earth Equilibrium in the Courtyard 98 3 The Divergent Tower 100 The emergence of the individual and metaphysics 103 Immortality and freedom imagined 109 4 Secluded World and Floating Life 122 The middling hermit 124 The artful transition 138 5 A Deceiving Symbol 148 The travelling merchant and the oddity of their courtyard 151 Women in Chinese marriage and household 160 Behind good taste and refinement 163 6 Literary Enchantment and the Garden House 176 Li Yü’s world 178 Internalized garden and the ‘horizon’ beyond 185 Courtyard and decorum 200 7 The Golden Mean Finely Tuned 204 The anatomy of a Beijing quadrangle 206 Life and ambience in the Hutong 211 The city as a large quadrangle 222 Distinctive character versus uniformity 226 8 Living like ‘the Chinese’ 240 The ‘guest’ Chinese and their Chinese courtyards 241 Chinese form and exotic meaning 251 Part Three Earth The Emancipation of Desire and the Loss of Courtyard 264 9 The Irresistible Metropolis 266 Modern city born of refugee crisis 270 From diminishing courtyard to porous house 279 10 The Assault of Modernity 292 Quadrangle without the Confucian world 296 The lingering courtyard 304 Nothingness, horizon and discreet pleasure 309 Epilogue: The Four or the Five 326 Notes 330 Index 354 For more than three thousand years, Chinese life – from the city and the imperial palace, to the temple, the market and the family home – was configured around the courtyard. So too were the accomplishments of China's artistic, philosophical and institutional classes. Confucius' Courtyard tells the story of how the courtyard – that most singular and persistent architectural form – holds the key to understanding, even today, much of Chinese society and culture. Part architectural history, and part introduction to the cultural and philosophical history of China, the book explores the Chinese view of the world, and reveals the extent to which this is inextricably intertwined with the ancient concept of the courtyard, a place and a way of life which, it appears, has been almost entirely overlooked in China since the middle of the 20th century, and in the West for centuries. Along the way, it provides an accessible introduction to the Confucian idea of zhongyong ('the Middle Way'), the Chinese moral universe and the virtuous good life in the absence of an awesome God, and shows how these can only be fully understood through the humble courtyard – a space which is grounded in the earth, yet open to the heavens. Erudite, elegant and illustrated throughout by the author's own architectural drawings and sketches, Confucius' Courtyard weaves together architecture, philosophy and cultural history to explore what lies at the very heart of Chinese civilization.